This is my free -off-music-tech-nerd-stuff-Interview with Mika Häkki, bassplayer by Monolord, Swedens Doom Metal Kick Starter. They are on tour supporting Black Label Society in front of most time sold out venues. The American heavy metal band, was foundet by charismatic Zakk Wylde, the former guitarist of Ozzy Osbourne. The swedisch Monolord bandmembers were sitting backstage while eating after soundcheck, and Mika was chosen to be my source to get some Information –

Hejhej Mika, do you like doing Iinterviews or you are forced to?

No, we are all comfortable with interviews, we just to try to take turns. So everybody gets like equal amounts, so nobody has to do every interview all the time.

The Band is foundet in 2013, and only 5 years later you made such a carrier and reached so many fans. What´s the secret?

Yeah, it ´s a pretty short time, I mean we hadn´t had the time to really reflect. And now we are here. Yes, it ´s really a fast ride from the very beginning. Secret is passion and hart work.

You were the last who join Monolord, were you also in a band before?( Thomas+Esben played together in Marluk)

Yeah sure, I was playing music since I was eight years old, started with the violin and electric guitar, and drums and bass. I started violin because of my mother´s side there´s a lot of violin players.

So you are a multi-instrumentalist, do you play the violin on the record?

Oh, no I did not, we had an extraordinary talented friend, Salome Kent, she plays on the recording.

And the organ, where does it come from?

Ah, the organ is actually a friend of ours, who is on the same label, he plays the organs, he lives in California, so we just send the recording to him, and then we put it together.

Will there ever be a live-record, or some touring with a violin/ organ-playing member?

Yeh, we are still try to do like our three-piece thing, so at the moment, the violins we haven’t taken to the live stuff yet. We are actually play the song without the violin. We have just reorganised the ending of the song a little bit, so that it suit our three piece. And the organs, for the song Rust for example, we have it like the actual recording that he did (John Gamino Red.) that we had on a sampler, so we put it just from the sampler on a pedal so we can sing without and everybody can suit.

So we go to some personal questions like your new Senf-tattoo.-

(smile) yeh we got it yesterday here in Cologne. We had a day off, so we came early in the day to Cologne, we parked on the other side of the river, so we had a really nice long walk and went to the city. We played in Köln two years ago and the tattoo artists and the piercer (Reincarnation) were both at the show. They took the chance to wrote to us on intagram “Would you guys like to come over”, really nice.

You do tour-tattoos all the time?

Most of them, we have a friend for example in Arizona for example, who have done on both of our US tours the tattoo, we do our coffee cup and a Twin Peaks sign and now the mustard bottle.(laughfing)

And so we´ll have Monolord- Mustard next?

Oh no probably not 🙂

Do you have all day jobs or can you do your living as musican?

Ja, we do have some day jobs as well, when we tour so much, sometimes you are home for two or three month, so you need the money rollin. I am working as a bartender and driving a Ford Clift, but still the passion is in the music, that’s the most important in focus. All my workplaces I´m in I say that: music comes first! I will never say no to a tour. So my current employer is Schenker ( Deutsche Speditionsfirma anm.Red.), the transport company. At the Gothenburg office my boss is a metalhead, so he knows what it means to me.

Next question is about Merch, Mastodon, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, David Ellefson from Megadeath and many more are now in coffee or cooperating with beer companies – who´s idea was it ?

Coffee for example, we all enjoy coffee so much, and we have started to know people who roast coffee. So they just came up with the idea, -let´s do this! And it sounds really good. I mean, we do quite small productions, like small roasters Cozocoffee, it gets quite expensive it´s exclusive, it is not a big market, just a fun thing to have. It´s fun working with people you get to know who have there own roaster and beer and have a huge passion for this. Always fun to work with passionated people.

We found out about the artist who done the Shirt, a Swedish designer label about a together friend, so it pops out in the metal scene in general, because we are all a little bit on the left side, vegan, vegetarian, feminists – we want to make the world a better place, not like the other Metal heads like Phil Anselmo. I think it’s a very nice message, too.There were classics, once in a time it was provocative, but its not any more, nobody is horrified, they just get like, oh not another one. I think it´s much more important for us three to be outside of that. To do something that is new to us, something that we can stand all behind. 100%, all the time.

Very cool!!

And the Cat on your band-shirt, were does it come from?

It´s a designer in the USA, who we hired to do the design, the cat is our idea. We are cat lovers, and animal lovers.

Ah, so you are also vegan?

Ja! Or vegetarian, I eat some cheese and stuff, but every we get the chance we prefer vegan.

Isn´t it an effort while touring?

It can be, It can be, but, this tour has been great, in the Black Label Society production they have a couple of vegan as well, so we are six people all together are eating vegan food, that’s perfect.

A little bit into the Album. The cover pic of Rust, do you were inspired by the, Cadillac Ranch in Texas?

I´ve been there! In Amarillo. But this one in particular, the image in itself, it’s a massive picture and the surrounding were it is and what it stands for is quite horrible. It´s brutal…and put´s the beautiful and ugly together. It´s from the war from Iran and Iraque, it really stands for symbol of the war, there cars are still there.

Good reconciliation to my next one- Is your success also a bit of a reflection of the depressive society stream? Are more people emotionally open?

Mhm, maybe, hard to say. Could be, a lot of people are writing to us that they are listen to our music when they really need to calm down or doing yoga, relaxing. Just yesterday a got a message from somebody who wants to jogging for about three kilometers just listening to the new album. I mean, it´s probably true, people got sick of that fast food live and getting more emotional.

Transporting energy like Monolord do is a strong force – energy, which is different from a show or from a record, the dynamic waves you can feel with your body.

Yes, I agree, the live music you feel with your whole body, and the music that we play for example you actually have to have the pacients to listen to, lot of the songs are really long, like monotonic, so no, its not the average radio music. I myself am a emotional music listener, and all the pedal stuff is something else, it´s on the side, because we as musicians try to involve our sound and do more specific stuff there.

Do you think misanthropy is a bigger theme in Scandinavian countries than others?

I can think about, me expecially growing up in Finnland, I think misanthropy is more visible in culture, I moved to Sweden 15 years ago. I wanna compare the different nordic cultures you can find like links like more darkness to the country. I myself grew up with dark culture, like the old writers, and the theatre and the movies.

So, do you o have a swedish Monolord-song ?

No, no we haven´t discussed that yet. Never thought about it. Maybe it comes someday (smile).

You working on a new album?

We have some work done, yes. It’s the same thing from the very beginning, like we constantly write new songs, and work with the material. With material witch has not come fare enough to reach the album, so we continue working and maybe it comes to the next album.

Three Last shorts: What´s your 3 wishes for the future –

We want to make the best for ourself and our loved ones. So it would be nice when vegan food will get an issue. So, more people take care for animals.

To have the whole time for music. Don´t need to be rich rockstars, but be able to do this for a full time. Concentrate every day on music. That´ll would be fantastic!

No borders.

Tusen Tak, Mika for being my first face-to face- interview partner, many many thanks to Andy Turner who made this possible!! Ulf Andersson, and all the others -you know who you are!